This month's guest blogger is Andrew Kohlmann, owner of Signs Now. I'll let Andrew take it from here!
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| Andrew and his family |
I am a "transplant" from Flint, Michigan. I moved up with my mother at the end of my
5th grade school year. Upon arriving, I quickly came to appreciate what
Traverse City had to offer and especially loved the outdoor activities and
closeness to nature. During junior high and high school I decided that I wanted
to pursue a career in something related to fine arts or graphic design. A
family member recommended that I look into the sign business as they thought it
would be a good fit to my creative side. In 1996, while attending high school I
started my career with Signs Now. As it turned out, it was a great fit -- I
truly enjoyed seeing my creativity as a graphic artist come to fruition as
signs that I designed were being installed all over our community.
Fast-forward seventeen years: Still with the same company
but now with a new title -- owner. Four and a half years ago, my wife and I
purchased the business and have never looked back. My role with the company
has, of course, changed and I wear many "hats" but I enjoy this
business without end. We're proud to say that we've grown the business in a
down economy, been named as a Top 10 Traverse City area Small Businesses by the
Chamber of Commerce in 2011 and 2012 and have enjoyed many other milestones
such as the birth of our daughters Annabelle and Alissa.
I share my history with you as a testament to two fairly
straight-forward but sometimes overlooked concepts: "going the extra mile" and building
relationships.
Earlier this year, I came across an article online that was
inspired by the teachings of Napoleon Hill -- "Habits of Going the Extra
Mile". It gave many examples of how important this practice is to the
success and growth of individuals. While the concept seems very basic and
simple, I think it's the small things as demonstrated in the article that can
make the biggest difference in a person, a business, a city and more. While
reading the piece, I found many parallels to times in my life in which I went
the extra mile and how, later, the impact became more apparent that my success
was due to these efforts. I've found the article's examples to be so impactful
that it's become a standard part of our hiring process -- It's a required read
for potential job candidates prior to starting the interview process.
Building relationships for me has been the more challenging
of the two. Being a "typical" right-brainer, early in my career, I
found it very challenging to muster up the courage to get involved in the
community and to go to events and network. However, knowing that it was a
“must” to build a successful business and to help build our community, I forced
myself to “come out of my shell”.
I think that Traverse City has become such a vibrant and
dynamic city largely due to these two aforementioned concepts. We are part of a
city that's built on relationships and we welcome all of those who want to
contribute to make it a better place for all. We have amazing organizations
such as the Young Professionals, TC Chamber, the Rotary and many more that help
us to build relationships and encourages “keeping it local”.
I also think that we're a community of people, businesses
and organizations that “go the extra mile” – which has helped our area remain
relatively isolated from the effects of the recession. We're lucky to have such
an amazing mix of strengths, positive community members, a beautiful natural
resources and a growing number of Young Professionals relocating to Traverse
City that all help to make our community “the place to be”.
